Rome

In 1337 the popes were still at Avignon, and Rome went short of the pilgrims and papal revenue it lived on; its great churches began to fall into ruin while the Colonna, Orsini and other noble houses fought over its streets. In 1347 Cola di Rienzo, a commoner, seized the Capitoline at the head of a crowd and ruled as tribune for a few months; he was killed in a tumult in 1354. Gregory XI finally brought the Holy See back on 17 January 1377 and found a city in anarchy, and the Western Schism kept Rome unsettled for four more decades. Martin V settled there in 1420 and began restoring its streets, churches and palaces.

Under Nicholas V, pope from 1447, scholars and artists returned to the papal court and Leon Battista Alberti began remaking the city. Rome reached its height in the first decades of the 16th century, under Julius II and the two Medici popes who followed, when it became the greatest centre of art in the world and the old St Peter's was pulled down to make way for a new basilica. In 1527 the unruly troops of Emperor Charles V stormed the city, pillaged it for days and held Clement VII prisoner in Castel Sant'Angelo, bringing that golden age to an end.